The fastest way to learn Italian is to spend most of your study time on Italian you can mostly understand. That kind of Italian is called comprehensible input. What you read and listen to should change as you improve, so the plan below shows what to do at each level and how to split an hour of study.
What to Do at Each Level
Find the level that sounds like you. Its bar shows how to spend an hour of study.
- Level 1
I'm just starting out or know only a few words.
Read and listen 35 min. Review 15 min. Speak 10 min.
Read short dialogues about Italian cafes and markets, with audio and a translation, and listen to each one twice. Then watch a Super Easy Italian video and say a few lines out loud.
- Level 2
I can handle simple exchanges.
Read and listen 40 min. Review 10 min. Speak 10 min.
Hide the translation and look up only the words that stop you. Listen to Simple Italian Podcast, which uses slow, simple Italian, and retell each episode in a few sentences.
- Level 3
I follow conversations on familiar topics.
Read and listen 40 min. Review 5 min. Speak 15 min.
Add the short news stories on EasyItalianNews.com, which come with audio, and listen to each lesson once more without reading along. Talk about what you read for longer.
- Level 4
I understand most content but miss some nuance.
Watch and listen 45 min. Review 5 min. Speak 10 min.
Watch Easy Italian's street interviews with the Italian subtitles on. Each week, listen to Slow Italian, Fast Learning, where the Australian broadcaster SBS reads the news slowly.
- Level 5
I read complex topics but rare words slow me down.
Listen and watch 50 min. Speak 10 min.
Listen to Podcast Italiano's advanced episodes with the transcript open, and watch Italian shows with Italian subtitles. Look up only the words that block the meaning.
- Level 6
I read at near-native level.
Read and listen 50 min. Speak 10 min.
Listen to radio shows on RaiPlay Sound, from Italy's public broadcaster Rai, and read novels and the news for their own sake.
Move up a level when your lessons start to feel easy, and move back down if you lose the thread by the third line.
How Long Does It Take to Learn Italian?
Italian takes about 24 weeks of full-time classes, or 552 class hours, to reach professional fluency, according to the U.S. Foreign Service Institute. That puts Italian in its fastest group for English speakers, with Spanish, French and Portuguese.
| Language | FSI group | Full-time weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Italian, Portuguese, Dutch | Category I | 24 |
| German, Indonesian | Category II | 36 |
| Russian, Vietnamese | Category III | 44 |
| Japanese, Korean, Mandarin | Category IV | 88 |
The University for Foreigners of Siena teaches 240 class hours per level, so its first level, A1, takes 240 hours and its first two, A1 and A2, take 480. Here is how long those take at different amounts of study a week:
| Study per week | Siena A1 (240 hours) | Siena A1–A2 (480 hours) | FSI professional fluency (552 hours) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3½ hours | About 16 months | About 2⅔ years | About 3 years |
| 7 hours | About 8 months | About 16 months | About 18 months |
| 14 hours | About 4 months | About 8 months | About 9 months |
| 28 hours | About 2 months | About 4 months | About 4½ months |
These are class hours, so treat them as a rough guide. FSI students also study on their own for 17 hours a week, and time you spend understanding Italian on your own counts too.
What Slows Learners Down
- Verb Tables AloneVerb endings learned from a table, with no sentence around them, are easy to forget.
- Nouns Without ArticlesEvery Italian noun is masculine or feminine, so learn each noun with its article, like la casa, the house.
- Content Far Too HardA film where you know one word in five teaches you very little.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Italian app should a beginner choose?
If you are serious about learning Italian, start with Bubblegum. Poppy writes lessons at your level about things you like. Our Italian app comparison covers courses, tutors and speaking apps too.
Can I learn Italian in three months?
You can learn enough Italian to order food and introduce yourself. At 14 hours a week, three months is about 180 hours. The University for Foreigners of Siena fits one level into three months, with 240 hours of classes.
How much should I study Italian each week?
Aim for three to five hours a week of Italian you understand, in sessions of at least 15 to 30 minutes. A longer session lets you get lost in a story, which teaches more than five minutes a day, and steady time each week matters more than a daily streak. Our post on deep sessions over daily streaks explains why.
Is Italian hard for English speakers?
No, by the Foreign Service Institute's measure. It is one of the quickest languages on its list, at 24 weeks, and Spanish and French take 30. Most of the time goes into words and verb forms, which you pick up fastest from Italian you understand.
Is Bubblegum free?
Yes. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn. It holds lessons that other learners asked Poppy for. A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons.
The Italian lessons on this site are also free and need no account.
